


To Come Home

by Mrs_Don_Draper



Category: Mad Men
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Kissing, Zou Bisou Bisou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 21:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrs_Don_Draper/pseuds/Mrs_Don_Draper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written just after episode 5x01: "A Little Kiss." Joan comes in for a visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Come Home

She’s back in the office in she can’t even say how long, and things have obviously been going swimmingly without her. She counts at least two new girls who don’t seem to even know her name, for Christ’s sake! She holds her head higher as she asks what’s-her-name to get the door for her so she can push the pram through. Her spirits are lifted slightly when she sees Roger, only to feel a bit forlorn when he calls her sweet angel a “dud.” She hands Kevin off to whomever and decides she will just cry in the lady’s room like some new girl when Lane pulls her aside.

Entering his office, she can no longer hold back the tears.

“Oh, this place has been held together by spit since you left,” Lane assures her, handing her his handkerchief.   
Joan can’t help but let out a few sobs into the cloth as she feels relief wash over her for the first time in months. For the first time, she was feeling needed for purposes other than breastfeeding and diapers and nap time. For the first time, she felt like she was at home.

Smiling a bit more, she asks, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it to Don’s party. How did it go?”

Lane bites his lip as he ponders the best way to put exactly the way the events of the party unfolded.

“Well, Mrs. Draper did a sort of cabaret dance for us all. She danced sort of like—like this.”

Lane began swinging his arms and hips, looking over his shoulder, and spinning before saying, “I certainly don’t do it any justice.”

Seeing that her tears have subsided, he joins her on the couch, smiling because she is.

“Now, dry those tears; I can’t have people thinking that I made you cry,” he says gently.

She pats her eyes again before handing him his handkerchief back.

They stand, and he just can’t help but hug her. It’s so good to have her back, if even for a moment. He begins to break the hug when he feels her grasp his hand, stopping him from pulling away. He tilts his head back down again to look her in the eye and sees something there that he realizes he had missed, beyond that of the comfortable way they worked together. Her eyes are dewy from crying, tear drops clinging to her eyelashes, a deep blue that is completely consuming him until he can do nothing but kiss her, grasping her other hand with his free one tightly, not willing to let her go just yet. Because this, this, is what Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce was missing: this wonderful woman who made everything ok again, even as the company was still paddling water to stay afloat. They needed Joan back. He needed Joan back.

Finally pulling away from the kiss, he whispers, huskily, “I humbly await your return, Mrs. Harris. Please remember that you are greatly loved and greatly missed.”

With a slight blush, Joan ducks her head and releases his hands to allow him to open the door for her. She is more determined than ever to come back. To come home.


End file.
